Portable electronic devices such as personal digital assistants (PDAs) or other handheld devices have become ubiquitous as they have decreased in size and cost while increasing in functionality. PDAs and other portable electronic devices allow users to manage vast amounts of information and to perform other tasks. Users can manage their contacts, calendar, e-mail, or other types of information and functions using their PDAs. As PDA technology continues to advance, PDAs are likely to continue to increase in popularity and in functionality. Because of the wide variety of tasks that they can handle and their potential complexity, PDAs often have a stylus, or touch pen, that a user may utilize to input information on a touch screen display. Many users enjoy using a stylus more than other input devices, particularly on PDAs or other handheld devices where buttons, keyboards, and the like are typically too small for comfortable use. Using the stylus and touch screen display, a user can select items on the screen, input written text, or provide other input, by touching the screen at the appropriate location or by writing in a designated area of the screen.
When the stylus is not in use, a user will typically place the stylus in a stylus receiver for safekeeping. The stylus receiver may be a sleeve, channel, or hole typically located within the body of the portable electronic device that will hold and retain the stylus when it is not in use. Accordingly, a user will typically place the stylus in its receiver for safekeeping once they have completed their tasks and use of the PDA. Many people, however, forget to replace their stylus when they are done using it and ultimately misplace their stylus. A user who has lost her stylus may spend valuable time searching for it, resulting in wasted resources and frustration. For many users, attempting to use their PDA without a stylus results in inefficiency as they are not accustomed to using alternative input methods, if any, on the device. In some cases, the user may permanently lose their stylus, requiring them to purchase a replacement unit. While a stylus is not typically very expensive, a user must still face the inconvenience of spending time ordering and/or waiting for a replacement.
A potential solution to problem of losing the stylus for a PDA or other portable electronic device is to provide a detector that determines when a stylus is located in the stylus receiver and to provide an alarm to the user in the event they forget to return the stylus. A user, upon hearing or viewing the alarm, could then place the stylus in its receiver and therefore prevent its misplacement. Such a solution, however, is plagued with a number of problems. First, by the time the detector has determined that the stylus is missing, the user may have already turned off the PDA or left the room, resulting in them missing any alarm. In another example, a user might miss a visual alarm if they were simply turned away from the PDA screen. A hearing-impaired user, in another example, may not hear any audio alarms and thus not be reminded to replace the stylus. The stylus alarm, in its reliance on the attention and ability of the user, does not offer a satisfactory solution to the problem of lost styluses. There is, therefore, a need for an effective mechanism for determining the location of a stylus for a portable electronic device.